MTBO 1:08:00 [3] 13.9 km (4:54 / km)
MBTO summer series event at Lysterfield Lake. The cool change had arrived by the time we arrived but there were still thousands of tourists frequenting the carpark on our arrival - though not too many out on the track. I learnt something regarding route choice from a previous event held here last year and headed out clockwise (around the lake) this time. My route choice was good, except that I made a decision to head back to the finish a little early and to not visit a nearby control - this meant that I was 8 minutes early and 20 points down.
My greatest observation regarding this event was the single track 'etiquette' - which resembled playing a game of 'chicken' ie - 'me or you, me or you (when eyeballing approaching cyclists), me or....OK then ..... me'. I must have got off 20 times to allow for passing cyclists. The question to be asked - why always ME? I think there should be extra points allocated to those cyclists who spent a large proportion of their time giving way on single track. It is really hard to get going again, especially on the uphill, on a single track.
Afterwards we had sausages and cheese toasties before heading off to a nearby cafe for more refreshments. Despite my lack of riding skill (and practice), I am starting to enjoy these MTBO events.
(Apologies for multiple entries on Friday [now deleted]. I forgot to take my laptop power lead to Melbourne and have been offline for most of the week - and therefore had to go to an internet cafe for Wed/Thurs entries(where nothing seemed to save). After various failed attempts to find a replacement lead at Officeworks and in Bruce P's backyard shed (almost as good as O'works), I resolved to spent the remainder of the week cyber-free.
Note
Oh, forgot to say that someone (no-one that I know) had a bad spill at MTBO and (I think) sustained a shoulder injury. I passed the woman walking out with the paramedics so she can't have been too bad. When I returned to the finish there were no less than 3 ambulances in attendance. In addition to these, we had our first aider and also 2 paramedics competing!